When Ivy Harnett’s husband told her to rush to her cabin window Sunday to see a polar bear, she assumed he was simply teasing.

Fogo Island — off Newfoundland’s northeast coast — is not, after all, noted for its array of subarctic wildlife.

But the view from her window was something she’ll not soon forget.

“I thought I was going to see a caribou walking down the road,” Harnett told CBC News.

“When I saw the polar bear, I squealed and said, ‘Frank! It’s a polar bear!’ He says, ‘That’s what I told ya.’ ”

Harnett said the polar bear was sniffing within 16 metres of the cabin. At one point, she said, the animal — estimated to weigh at least 180 kilograms — turned in their direction and started to sprint.

“I guess he smelled what we were cooking for dinner,” she said.

“I don’t know, because I don’t know what polar bears are like.”

Harnett’s husband fired a warning shot in the air, which was enough to prompt the animal to jump back into the ocean.

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